You couldn’t talk about what was 2014 without noticing confidence of all age groups, genders and types managing their way around this old world that is called the social medias. My own social media “oldies media aware” survey proved this with (over) 150 survey participants over 40 years of age – the majority being in the upper age brackets. Yes, including 80 year olds!

Confidence. It’s now to the point where hashtags, selfies and meme’s are just a way of life and many go viral with great amusement of the crowds. In fact you could say that 2014 really was the year of the hashtag, selfie and meme making headway into common ground and previous years we were just dabbling. They have been accepted, enjoyed and embraced as a form of humour. No more psychological analysis into the personality traits of people who take selfies – because everyone does. They now even buy equipment to help them (Selfiesticks). Don’t believe me? Check your newsfeed again and all your mates pictures. See. Weekly examples of memes are also popping out to the amusement of the masses. Where will this take us into the future? Its a good question I ask myself as humans “play” when they are comfortable. Online services, sales and content delivery is growing. Mobile use is growing and has been for a while. Emergency services use social media as a normal way to communicate to the community. What’s next? I know there won’t be too many more apps unless they are well thought out and work before they hit the market. People’s tollerance levels are low for poor performing sites.

Conversation. Will business finally get it? 2015 is looking more promising. It is progressing more towards the “what can I do to lend a hand?” conversation, which is a positive. Things like my new pilot program to encourage Microvolunteering are shaping how we look at the use of social media and the associated conversations being made in the community. These projects are looking at isolation as a real issue and taking it seriously. There is more activism on the mediums – we witnessed this during 2014 for the local council elections, and various community crisis. If all you do when online is sell – you will loose. Be warned.

Criticism. I am happy to witness the decrease of the embarrassing “updates from CEO blogs” (no, fortunately my reputation is intact as I never encouraged any). I’m happy to mentor anyone in the blogging space, but let’s be real, waffly CEO blogs don’t help anyone. Make it valid, stay real and have an opinion sure but use a proper writing style and media releases for relevant industry news. Where to from here? Well, CEO’s might pay more attention to what others are doing. For many years I have touted the use of analytics or insights for online traffic analysis. This might be the year business finally gets why. I hold my breath. Hopefully not for long. They are certainly warming already to the potential of Facebook advertising capabilities through targeted demographic campaigns, therefore analysing results is a natural progression as their executives and boards want to understand their ROI.

Crusade. Get your SEO sorted. Get your online profile singing. Use the services like About.Me to share your contact details if you are in business. This is not the time for laziness. It is time to be found and to grow your business online. You will be expected to generate a positive voice who shares generous content. You can create an online newsroom or simply use LinkedIn or your current blog however those who strive to become an industry expert or simply share article of interest from services such as The Conversation will win the day. Be relevant and make it happen. You may wish to use the concept of “virtual PR” to create a new conversation into 2015 – write guest blogs, share article content, generate more electronic press releases for example and share with your niche market sectors (portal) style websites targeting your industry. On top of this, keep in mind, fancy gadgets and widgets will loose (did I just say that? Yep.). Simple interfaces, easy to remember and catchy phrases will keep people coming back to you (example: truthbomb) in among a crowd fighting for their 5 minutes of fame. Breathe air into your content and people will relax around you, have fun and settle in for the ride.

Chuckle. I can’t see those meme’s ending anytime soon. It all might just get a tad more silly. Hopefully. Just like the #selfiestick craze. Hashtag anyone?

All the calculations show it can’t work. There’s only one thing to do: make it work. ~Pierre Georges Latécoère, early French aviation entrepreneur.

And that’s exactly why I love this time of year also. Christmas is a time for peace, joy and goodwill to all. Thankyou my friends for being a part of my ongoing online voice. You give me the reason to express and be who I enjoy being.

-Charlie